The cost of outdoor smoking bans
Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 9:53 
Here it is, the new Manifesto Club report on outdoor smoking bans.
Smoked Out: The Hyper-Regulation of Smokers in Public Places is well timed because Brighton Council has just closed a public consultation on extending the smoking ban to outdoor areas, and as we went to print Swansea Council announced an almost identical survey.
Using Freedom of Information the Manifesto Club has unearthed some interesting information.
For example, Glasgow hospitals spent almost £400,000 in one year on 17 'no-smoking' officers to patrol hospital grounds.
Blackpool Council spent £275,000 on no-smoking signs in parks and play areas. Some of these signs were removed after they were branded 'monstrous' by residents.
Seventeen authorities have erected a total of 1570 'no smoking' signs in play areas plus 486 outside schools at a total cost of over £340,000.
Here's an edited version of the press release:
A new Manifesto Club report Smoked Out argues that outdoor smoking bans are driven by officials in councils and public health bodies, rather than responding to health risks or public demand.
The report - published on Wednesday 21 October - shows how outdoor bans are often introduced by officials seeking to 'improve the image' of a town or institution, or to 'comply with official guidance'.
The report includes new FOI data showing the time and resources spent on enforcing bans, often in the face of public opposition.
The report notes that outdoor smoking bans are often justified as a way to 'denormalise smoking' and to limit children's exposure to 'smoking behaviours'.
The report also highlights cases where signs wrongly suggest that smoking outdoors will affect the health of children. One sign outside a London hospital showed an image of a baby and read, 'please do not smoke here - my little lungs are nearby', though the area was well away from hospital doors.
Smoked Out criticises current moves by Scottish and Welsh governments to enforce hospital smoking bans with on-the-spot fines. 'It's hard to see how these punishments can be enforced with any reasonableness or humanity. Will patients be fined? Will their worried relatives be escorted from the site?'
I've written a short preface for the report, reprinted below:
The ban on smoking in all enclosed public places, introduced in Scotland in 2006 and the rest of the UK in 2007, was justified – or so we were told – because it would improve the health of bar workers who were routinely exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke.
Never mind the lack of hard evidence that ‘passive’ smoking was a genuine and serious health risk, or that many proprietors had gone to great lengths to improve air quality, or that according to the Office for National Statistics only a minority of adults supported a comprehensive ban, anti-tobacco campaigners were determined to stub out the practice of smoking in Britain’s pubs and clubs.
Less than a decade later those same campaigners, aided and abetted by a handful of local councillors, now want to ban smoking in the open air where there is no evidence of any risk to other people’s health and the worst that can be said is that some people don’t like the smell or (shock horror) the sight of someone smoking.
Desperate to restrict people’s liberties even further (and mindful perhaps that they need another campaign to justify their existence), anti-smoking campaigners now want to prohibit smoking in parks, on beaches, in squares and in hospital grounds.
There is no justification for banning smoking in outdoor public spaces and I’m delighted the Manifesto Club has joined forces with Forest to campaign against proposals to extend the smoking ban to outdoor areas.
Tobacco is a legal product. Adults must be allowed to smoke in outdoor public places without harassment or worse. They must of course show consideration for others but there should be no place for zealotry in public health. Tolerance, common sense and good manners (on both sides) must prevail.
To download and read Smoked Out visit the Manifesto Club website or click here.
To promote the report we're hosting a small event in London tonight. Drinks will be followed by a short discussion featuring report author Dolan Cummings; Josie Appleton, director of the Manifesto Club; Alex Wild, TaxPayers Alliance; Rob Lyons, Action on Consumer Choice; and me.
Venue is the Institute of Economic Affairs (2 Lord North Street, Westminster) and I can vouch for the beer and wine because I chose them myself. If you're in London today do join us.
Update: Excellent article by the Manifesto Club's Josie Appleton on Spiked - Smoked out of the public square.
Reader Comments (3)
I thought the introduction of restrictions was to protect the health of non-smokers.
In the Public Health (Wales) Bill debate today, in reviewing what should be done about e-cig regulation, the CMO (I think she was) at about an hour in, said the "The prime objective here is to get people to quit smoking"
So e-cigs (as Pat Nurse suggested a while ago) could be used to force smokers to quit.
The committee members did not seem in favour of recreational use and still considered the medicalisation of e-cigs to be the route to go down.
(I will skip of the comparison between Vaping and Fracking)
So there you have it. The measures spoken about on this post are in-line with the prime objective. It can no longer be said (in Wales) it is to protect others.
What can Forest do? Well consideration for non-smokers isn't going to cut it, is it? The London centric focus needs to widen. Indeed the first Vapefests took place in the Midlands.
Perhaps a more strident approach? Calling for withdrawal from the FCTC, lower taxes and an end to denormalisation as a policy need to be highlighted.
Less polite conversation? I understand that curtesy in the face of such formidable opposition has been the Forest way, though you can still be courteous and robust.
This is an excellent report. Its analysis is sound and needs to be widely disseminated. First step should be providing it to every MP, MSP, AM, and MLA in the UK, every TD in Éire, and every MEP. It would be nice to get a few strategic copies circulated in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US as well.
Beyond circulating the report, decisive and vocal action needs tribe taken to expose the tobacco control lies and overreach. Every effort to stop outdoor bans and the move toward total prohibition and restore smoking rooms in pubs must be taken now.
"For example, Glasgow hospitals spent almost £400,000 in one year on 17 'no-smoking' officers to patrol hospital grounds."
That's around 10 nurses. How disgraceful is that?